Norfolk Island today is a tourist destination, where immigration is strictly controlled. In the past, to be transported there was considered a punishment worse than death. The island’s population includes the descendants of mutineers from the HMS Bounty who were transferred from Pitcairn Island in 1856. You may rememer the various films of this event: 1935 – starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton (winner of the Best Picture oscar), 1962 – with Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard ( a critical and financial disaster) and 1984 (the most accurate) – Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins.
‘It is known to but few, that persons who are transported a second time are sent to Norfolk Island, a place about 1200 miles distant from the place usually assigned. This punishment is looked upon by many as worse than death–perpetual labour, without the possibility of redemption, is the lot of the convict. The impossibility of escape may be guessed at, from the fact, that no vessel can approach the island, except in two months in the course of the year, and there is but one way of access, which is defended by an armed force, and which Nature herself seems to have applied as her protection to society against those who deserve to be cast out of it.’
Stamford Mercury, 21 November, 1828.